Golf is a very popular recreational game played all over the world. Millions of individuals play golf as a leisure or social activity, many thousands play in tournaments or wager on their performance, and hundreds play professionally on the Professional Golfers' Association Tour. Golf is often the game of choice for informal business meetings and social networking. Contributing to the popularity of golf among a wide range of people is the fact that it can be played by players of many different ages, from youths to senior citizens.
While golf has been played for centuries, its popularity is currently at an all-time high. Professional golf tournaments are shown on television all over the world, where players play for record prizes in the millions of dollars. World-famous professional players such as Tiger Woods have increased the reach of golf, and more people are watching and playing golf than ever before.
While millions of people play golf, few play it very well. Golf is an inherently difficult game that frustrates countless people to a level not seen in many other sports. A proper golf swing requires a great deal of training, as various muscles of the body must perform in a synchronized, fluid, and consistent manner. Learning a proper golf swing is very difficult for the average golfer. Desperate for help in playing better and lowering their scores, countless golfers turn to professional instruction, newer and more expensive equipment, and an array of practice aids and tools designed to help golfers play better.
Of all the areas that golfers seek improvement in, perhaps the most common (and indeed the most important) is putting. Putting is a delicate skill mastered by only a tiny percentage of the world's best golfers. Putting requires confidence, muscle memory, speed and distance control of the golf ball, and proper alignment—all of which are skills lacked by the vast majority of golfers around the world.
The Game of Golf
Golf is a game played on expansive outdoor courses, wherein players use various types of clubs to strike a golf ball, with the intent of getting the ball into a hole in as few strokes (swings of the golf clubs) as possible. Players begin by placing a golf ball (a hard sphere about 1.7 inches in diameter) in a designated area called a “tee box.” Depending on the distance to the hole (which may range from about 100 yards to over 500 yards), players select a suitable golf club with which to strike the ball and send it toward the hole. Golf clubs are long devices that consist of a rubberized grip, a shaft made of steel, graphite, or other suitable material, and a club face designed to strike the ball. Different clubs have varying lengths, varying shaft materials, and club faces of various shapes, sizes, and lofts (the angle at which the club face strikes the ball). Players face the ball and place both hands on the club's grip, then proceed to swing the club back (this is called the “backswing”) and then down and through the golf ball (this is called the “downswing”); the impact is intended to launch the ball in the air and toward the hole. Once the ball comes to rest, players continue striking the ball with the intent of sending the ball closer to the hole with each successive shot. Once the ball comes to rest on an area near the hole known as the “green,” players use a club called a “putter.” The putter is a club with a flat face of no or very little loft, and is used to roll the ball into the hole.
Golf is played on courses that customarily contain 18 “holes,” each of which contains a tee box, an open grassy area, various obstacles such as water, sand, or trees, and a putting green with a small (4.25 inches in diameter, and about 4 inches deep) hole placed somewhere therein. Players count the number of strokes it takes to get the ball from the tee box into the hole, and tally that score. After playing all 18 “holes,” the scores are added together for a final score. Scores are often expressed as a certain amount over or under “par,” which is the number of strokes it would take a very good golfer to complete all 18 holes. The “par” value for most regulation 18-hole golf courses is usually 72.
Putting
Putting is considered by many to be the most challenging part of the difficult game of golf. Putting requires exact control over both the direction and distance of the golf ball, and there is very little room for error. It requires a very precise stroke of the putter, one that is firm but not too strong, one that is delicate and accurate but not too weak, one that accelerates through the ball at the proper speed and rate of acceleration, and one that stays “on line” in both the backswing and downswing to strike the ball straight in the intended direction. It requires a smooth tempo, a straight back-and-forth stroke, and the muscle memory to repeat a true putting stroke again and again.
As many putts are made from many feet away (aiming for a hole only 4.25 inches in diameter), small errors in direction (of only a degree or two) will send the ball off course enough that it will not fall into the hole. Striking the ball too softly will not get it to the hole; striking it too hard will make it go far past the hole if the ball is off line, and even skip over the hole if the ball is on line. To make matters more difficult, most putting greens are not perfectly flat and contain various slopes that will affect the path of the ball. Putting is a very difficult skill, as the margin for error is very small. Additionally, there is no way to really “make up” for a missed putt with a better shot down the line. While a good second shot can often make up for a poor first shot, each putt a golfer misses adds another stroke to their score. Missing a couple of putts on any hole is a sure way for a golfer to record a bad score on that hole.
There are at least 14 different types of golf clubs in regular use (including the driver, woods, irons, and wedges), but the putter is used far more often than any other club. In fact, roughly half of all strokes made in a round of golf are made with the putter. Therefore, the greatest influence on scores can be obtained by improving a player's skill with the putter.
As explained above, the average 18-hole golf course has a par value of 72. In theory, 36 of these strokes should be putts, which means that players aim to have two (or fewer) putts on each hole. “Three-putting,” or taking three (or more) putts to get the ball into the hole once already on the green, can drastically raise golf scores, vastly decrease the chances of making par, and often can “ruin” an otherwise good hole (or even an entire round if a player three-putts too often).
Regulation golf courses have holes with a par of 3 (in which case the hole is short enough for a player to reach the green in one stroke), 4 (in which case the hole is long enough to usually require two strokes to reach the green), and 5 (in which case the hole is very long, usually requiring three strokes for an average golfer to reach the green). In all cases, players reaching the green in the expected number of strokes would have two putting strokes in order to get the ball in the hole and still score par on that hole. Clearly, a player that three-putts a hole is at a tremendous disadvantage: for example, the player no longer has any chance at all of a par on a par-3 hole.
The most common cause of three-putting is lack of proper distance control when putting. In other words, lack of proper pace and acceleration when striking the ball. A pace that is too slow, or that does not follow through properly, will result in a ball that does not reach the hole. On the other hand, a stroke that is too strong can cause the ball to roll well past the hole, sometimes off the green altogether and even further from the hole than it started! Such disastrous putts can quickly escalate a player's score for the round.
Many players suffer from poor putting strokes. One very common problem is a lack of follow-through: players poke or “stab” at the ball, striking it with the club and then immediately stopping the club's forward motion. This rapid deceleration at the point of impact makes it difficult to strike the ball with the desired force. It also leads to a very poor roll or spin on the ball, which decreases accuracy. Golf experts recommend instead a consistent acceleration through the ball, which includes a follow-through after the ball is struck. The pace of this acceleration is obviously slower for short putts and faster for longer ones, but a consistent acceleration is far easier to control than an acceleration followed by an abrupt deceleration of the putter. Players who decelerate the club head when putting often decelerate too quickly, causing them to barely hit the ball and leave it short, or too slowly, causing the ball to travel too far. Both of these errors often lead to three-putts.
Golf Aids
Golf is a game that is very popular, is often played in groups, and is often played competitively for money; yet the game is very difficult for most people. Most (if not all) players are constantly practicing, reading articles, paying for golf lessons from professionals, and generally trying to improve their golf game and lower their scores. Thus, there is a large market for various types of training aids, specialized equipment, and swing aids to help the average golfer play better. Examples of aids include nets to strike balls into, holes to putt balls into, clubs that are designed to impart the “perfect swing,” and various (often bulky) devices that are staked into the putting surface. However, the average golfer is still a consistently poor putter, and no putting aid on the market today adequately addresses all the necessary skills (e.g., speed and distance control of the golf ball, consistent pace, proper follow-through, proper alignment, and muscle memory of these motions) to make golfers into considerably better putters.
Drawbacks and Potential Improvements
While several golf aids (and specifically, putting aids) do exist on the market, none provide the golfer with the training necessary to meaningfully improve their putting. Most golf training aids on the market today fail to help impart muscle memory, which is acquired through repetition of a consistent movement. Muscle memory is critical in golf swings, including putting, because several different muscle groups must work in harmony, and with the proper timing and amount of strength and force. A golf swing must be fluid, with the proper muscles working in harmony, and it must be repeatable—in other words, a golfer must be able to instinctually strike a ball with a consistent amount of force by using a consistent swing speed and rate of acceleration through the ball. Many golf aids on the market today do not impart a consistent swing motion, which is necessary in order to develop muscle memory for a proper golf swing. Indeed, many golf training devices on the market focus solely on visual training for alignment, without training the vital muscle memory aspect of the golfer's swing.
Additionally, most existing putting aids focus only on either direction or speed, but not both. There is a need in the art for an improved putting aid that is designed to teach proper putter speed and acceleration and to teach a proper and straight putting stroke that stays on line with the hole. Further, there is a need for a putting aid that is able to impart the proper muscle memory by not only “guiding” the putter into the proper swing path, but by also providing tactile feedback that teaches the golfer the proper swing speed and rate of acceleration. A golf aid that performs all of these functions will result in a consistent swing (in both direction and speed), and repetition of this proper swing will train the muscles to repeat this swing again and again, eventually developing a muscle memory that will allow the golfer to recreate the proper swing even without the golf aid.
Specifically, there is a need in the art for a putting device that can train golfers to putt by using a consistent rate of acceleration through the golf ball. Many players “chop” or “hack” at the ball, slowing or stopping the putter as it makes contact with the ball. A device that encourages consistent acceleration and follow-through past the point of impact with the ball would greatly increase putting skill, and reduce the number of putts that are much too short or too long, which often lead to three-putts. Ideally, such a device would provide tactile feedback that encouraged golfers to continue the forward motion of the putter and follow through after striking the ball. This tactile feedback, repeated several times, would help to develop the critical muscle memory that is so necessary for skilled putting.
Furthermore, many of the existing training devices suffer from critical limitations. For instance, many of the devices in the art utilize one or more stakes (or similar structures) to anchor the training device into the putting surface. Such methods of attachments severely limit the golfer's putting position, and the golfer would have to suffer the inconvenience of re-staking and re-assembling the training device if the golfer desired to putt from a different position or angle with respect to the golf hole. Also, the use of stakes as a means for attachment can damage the putting surface and will limit the type of surface with which the device can be used (e.g., the device cannot be used with indoor, home, or office putting surfaces as such surfaces are not penetrable).
Many of the existing training devices are simply not practical and easily transportable since many are large and bulky, difficult to assemble, and are primarily intended for use at one location. For instance, some devices are sufficiently weighted (or in other words, heavy) to anchor to a putting surface while other devices require the use of a two or more bulky posts/stakes that must be painstakingly and strategically positioned at each putting position. Many of these devices often use strings or cords which merely provide visual training and feedback to teach alignment and fail to provide tactile feedback that teaches the golfer the proper swing speed and rate of acceleration by training the golfer's muscles. In addition, a number of golf training aids in the art do not provide actual training with an actual golf club, golf hole, and golf ball, but rather, such aides provide simulated training methods with simulated or ‘practice’ golf clubs, golf holes, and/or golf balls. Such training devices do not improve a golfer's real-world skills as using a simulated item will obviously provide a different “feel” for the golfer.
A putting aid that addresses all of the above drawbacks in the art would certainly be more effective in improving the putting ability of most golfers. Such a putting aid would be likely to increase the popularity of golf even further, enable more people to play better golf, reduce the frustration of many golfers, and would likely be immensely popular with golfers all over the world. Other advantages of the present invention will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art in light of the ensuing description of the present invention.